Cognitive Therapy Techniques

Discuss the theory of personality behind cognitive therapy. How can you recognize automatic thoughts? How can you identify your irrational beliefs? Discuss assessment and research in Beck's theory.

Reply to the following response with 200 words minimum.  (Please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post.)

Cognitive therapy is a helpful form of treatment that has been shown to help with a large number of negative stressors or emotions that a person can develop.  The idea behind the therapy is that the therapist can help redirect a person's train of thought so that they can better understand what is causing the problem and how they can solve it.  By a person learning their own personality and way of thought, they can not only benefit from better self-awareness, but also obtain the ability to redirect any negative or stressful thoughts coming in.  A prime example when it comes to how cognitive therapy would work, can be seen in a person who is suffering from depression.  A person with depression is unlike someone who has moments of negative feelings.  A person with depression has extreme negative thoughts and often find themselves effected seriously by it, both mentally and physically.  In fact, a person can have their reality completely distorted, while any new thoughts and emotions coming in to the mind immediately take a negative twist.  To solve this problem from a cognitive therapeutic sense, a person would have their thought process re-altered to that they could combat negative thoughts as they appear.  Depression and negative thoughts truly go hand in hand and paired together can propel someone into a very dark place, but with this form of therapy a person can start to see the glass as half full.

In looking at how a person can recognize an automatic thought, it simply can relate to what a person thinks of immediately following a certain event or thing that happens.  It's like imagining your favorite food in your head, or even seeing it and getting the idea that it must task good/ having saliva form in your mouth.  With this being the case, automatic thoughts are simply thoughts that we unconsciously think of right away.  Irrational thoughts having the idea when it comes to recognizing them, since they form from negative events and can cascade into longer negative properties.  Once again, this being where a cognitive approach can show how to trace a thought process back to the source and thus allow a person to handle the problem.  Cognitive therapy can basically be a long-term problem solver if a person follows the steps and truly understands the power of doing so.

Assessment and research into Beck's theory showcase the fact that the theory still holds a lot of sway to the modern world.  This also being made clear because it is still regarded to be an effective method to treating many, many psychiatric disorders, psychological problems, and medical conditions with psychological components (Madewell & Shaughnessy, 2009).  It's the power of realistic thinking and understanding, once a person knows how to think more realistically in their daily life, the results will follow.

References  - Madewell, J., & Shaughnessy, M. F. (2009). An interview with judith beck about cognitive therapy. North American Journal of Psychology, 11(1), 29.